Salford council slammed over ‘serious failings’ in care of 12-year-old Tia Rigg

Tia Rigg, 12, was tortured, raped and stabbed by her uncle Tia Rigg, 12, was tortured, raped and stabbed by her uncle

Social services missed SEVEN chances to help a 12-year-old girl murdered by her perverted uncle.

Tia Rigg was tortured, raped and stabbed to death by John Maden after he lured her to his Cheetham Hill home.

Today, a probe into her death found a string of ‘serious failings’ by Salford’s crisis-hit children’s services department.

Tia and her family were known to social workers as a result of a ‘significant amount’ of information about her mother, Lynn Rigg.

There were so many concerns that 12-year-old Tia had been put on the child protection register before she was even born.

The report found information about the family was never properly analysed to get an accurate understanding of the level of risk to Ms Rigg’s children.

Between October 2009 and March last year there were seven incidents within Tia’s family which should have prompted Salford children’s services to consider taking legal action to protect her and her siblings.

These included her mother attempting suicide in front of her children, one child being left ‘home alone’ and violence between family members.

The report says: “The failure to take such action and to hold strategy meetings between police, children’s social care services, and other key agencies was a significant feature in this case.”

The probe – carried out on behalf of the Salford safeguarding children’s board – also found ‘serious skills deficits’ by social workers who looked at information about the family.

It concluded that, despite the failings, the death of Tia was ‘not predictable or preventable’.

The authors found there was no reason for any family member to anticipate that Tia would have been subjected to such an horrific assault at the hands of Maden, who she visited regularly.

But they added that the ‘ongoing harm’ to Tia, because of the poor quality of care offered by her mother, was ‘predictable’ – and could have been prevented had she had been legally removed and placed in a home.

There were numerous examples where information should have been routinely shared between agencies but was not, they found.

That effectively meant there was only a partial understanding of problems of the family, who lived in Kimberley Street, Higher Broughton. The report also identified ‘very worrying’ gaps in communication between various health teams, including GPs. Information sharing between schools was also patchy, it found.

Tia’s mother had a long history of drug abuse and the full impact of that on her children was not fully appreciated, said the report.

It said: “The combination of drugs misuse, domestic violence, and parental mental health, alongside historical factors, should have led to a much higher level of concern than was seen in this case.”

Maden was jailed for life last October after a court heard how he persuaded Tia to go to his flat in Cheetham Hill, on April 3, on the pretext of babysitting.

He then drugged and killed her before calling police to confess the crime in a ‘chillingly calm’ manner.

Council leader John Merry said Tia’s was a tragic case and admitted more could have been done to support her in coping with her unstable home life. But he added: “Even if this child had been removed from her home, she would not have been prevented from having contact with her uncle as there was no indication she was at risk from him.”

The report in Tia’s death comes after four years of turmoil in the city’s children’s services department.

It has twice been branded inadequate by government inspectors and is currently in special measures.

Two years ago, a damning review into the case of another murdered child in Salford, two-year-old Demi Leigh Mahon, was published.

Social workers who were warned 12 times by police, neighbours, and relatives about her chaotic domestic life.

Last December, Jill Baker, director of children services, was sacked. She is claiming unfair dismissal and a tribunal is due to restart in August.

Graham Stringer, MP for Blackley and Broughton, said: “This report recognises mistakes but fails to point out what is plain as a pikestaff – that this child should not have been in that home.”